Fursaxa, Alexander Tucker and Sharron Kraus

@ Cube Bristol - Sunday 4th Dec

The most intimate 'Cube' show yet with only about 20 people at the gig, I suppose the combination of Sunday night and winter being too much for most.



First up was Sharron Kraus from Oxford. Not really a big fan of traditional folk but she did a good job of converting me with her fancy finger work, gorgeous vocals and tales steeped in murder and longing. Didn't feel staid or dusty at all - Loved the added bonus of Fursaxa supplying accordion and supporting vocals for the last song of her set.









Alexander Tucker was next - a master of the overlay, swapping instruments whilst piling on the textures with his network of effects boxes. He supplied psyched out versions from his recent release, the song 'of late' was a particular winner with his multi-tracked voice entering the realms of sci-fi robot or the Cecil B. DeMille like 'voice of God', but the doom metal cords he added later on in the show were defiantly the cream - bass heavy depth charges that reverberated in meaty majesty. I’m liking his 'Old Fog' album more and more but live he's more enigmatic-taking Folk music far beyond its perceived frontiers.



The combination of blurry accordion breeze and free-floating polyphonic voice was an incredible opener to Fursaxa’s (Tara Burke) set and it just got better with every song. Like Mr Tucker she created a varied textural base for her ethereal vocals, conjuring machine phantoms from her sound sources and distorting their vaporous shapes into unearthly drones. Lots of different instruments were fed into her box of magical effects - tiny toy guitars, shakers, Tibetan bells, whistles and flutes some warped until unrecognisable. Towards the end of her set fellow label mate Mr Tucker supplied some low-key atonal noise to Tara’s keyboard drones…an amorphous mass that swirled round those bewitching vocals like a festive garland.